


What's Really Going On Below

by inveigler81



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The OC
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 09:25:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8618929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inveigler81/pseuds/inveigler81
Summary: Buffy's preparing for college and dealing with the loss of Angel when she meets a mysterious young man from out of down, coping with a recent loss of his own.





	

Buffy would always be amazed at how well Ryan fit in. 

They're more similar than she realized at first. Both with their scars and their sad stories. Neither used to normality, or placing much trust in good things. Ryan has so often been alone, an outsider, an outcast. Here all that seems to change. Here he just seems right. 

None of this registered the first time she met him. 

A new housing development was going up around the mansion. She'd snuck onto the site one night before patrol. It beat procrastinating about selecting her classes, something Willow would give her an earful for. She just wanted to say goodbye to the place, or to keep a piece of it. Remember it how it was, swathed in old vines and the non-smell of Angel. 

"Somebody there?" A voice echoed through the lower floor. Buffy ignored it, hoping whoever it was would move on. She was enthralled by the ghosts that lingered, even then. 

"You shouldn't be here, it isn't safe." The voice came closer, a flashlight throwing stark shadows and stinging her eyes. 

"It was never safe," she said quietly. She didn't turn until he placed a hand on her shoulder. Then she spun, had him hard by the wrist with one hand fingering the stake at her hip. 

"Easy," he murmured calmly, in a tone you'd use with a startled animal or a frightened child. A tone that sounded natural from force of habit. She released him and turned away. 

"What are you doing here?" he asked. 

"Why are *you* here?" she retorted, annoyed at the intrusion into what was supposed to be a small moment, a quiet moment. Exquisite, painful. 

"I work here...during the day. Forgot my jacket," he explained holding up an old, black, leather one, not dissimilar to her own. They stood together in silence for a moment. 

"What are they going to do it? To this place, I mean," she asked quietly, looking around again. 

"Restore it, I think. Why?" 

"Nothing...I used to know someone who lived here," she answered in a small voice. 

"Here," he murmured, moving over towards something in the dark. He threw a switch on a generator that kicked on bright overhead lights, illuminating the scaffolds and dropsheets, planks and paintcans. He looked younger and shorter than he sounded, dressed in a hoodie, a vest and jeans. His blonde hair hung forward over his face. Natural blonde, not Billy Idol white. 

"No, thanks..." Buffy stuttered, startled. "It's ok, I was leaving anyway." She began to back away, the light too much like daylight, something that had never belonged here. 

"Then I'll walk you out," he called to her as he killed the light and flicked the flashlight back on. 

"I know the way," she dismissed him. 

"Ok then," he shrugged in the darkness, something about him seeming hollow or tired. 

"Whatever you do – don't let them ruin this place," she spoke seriously to him as she turned to leave. 

"I'm not planning on burning it down," he muttered as he walked in the opposite direction. 

"Excuse me?" She turned back. 

"Sorry – old joke," he shrugged again and smiled a wry, one-sided smile. His blue eyes looked dark and sad in the torchlight. 

"Funny," she muttered as she left. 

~ 

The second time was different. 

She heard the scream a block away and cursed both her choice of patrol route and her choice of boots. She passed a payphone with the door wrenched open, the receiver swinging wildly and a woman's voice calling the name 'Ryan', thin and crackly. To her surprise a young girl ran out of the alley next to it and off up the street. 

Stake drawn, she rounded the corner to see the boy from the mansion slam a vampire's arm in a dumpster lid, pinning its mistimed punch. He brought a piece of wood down hard on the trapped limb with his free hand. The crack was sickening, striking it with such force that the wood snapped in two a lot more cleanly that the bone did. The vampire backfisted him so hard that he hit the opposite wall of the alley. 

She ran towards him but he knocked her aside – shouted at her to run. The vampire leapt on him, knocked him to the ground, tried to pin him with its good arm while flailing horribly with the other. She made to move at them again but then the boy was on top of it and began striking it in the face, again and again and again and again. She stood transfixed, momentarily unsure of what he was as he fought, wild-eyed and possessed. The thing went limp before she could move, its face a swollen and bloody ruin. 

He staggered to his feet, his own face not much better. More blood on his knuckles, spatters of it on his white vest. Buffy tried to get past him, to finish the vamp off before it came round, but he grabbed hold of her, took her roughly by the shoulders and tried to drive her out of the alley. It was a feat he didn't have much chance of achieving but she was surprised at the strength of him. She tried to explain but he swore at her and called her Marissa and she was stunned by the fury and the loss in his eyes. 

After she finished the vamp and helped him steady himself, Buffy walked with him to a diner by his cheap motel. She sipped an awful attempt at a mocha while he mulled it all over in silence, took her number and left in a daze. She didn't know why she gave it to him, trauma counselling wasn't generally her thing – she inflicted the injuries, she didn't fix them. But there was something about him, about his desperate passion, something she tried very hard not to associate with Angel, and Christmas, and sunrise. 

He never called. 

~ 

Xander was working construction, and he kept going on about some guy he'd met called Ryan – someone apparently even more stoic than Oz, to which Oz came as close to taking umbrage as Buffy had ever seen with a very sincere 'Hmm'. Ryan's brother had sent some ridiculously-titled cartoons that Xander loved, and was planning a visit to discover whether Ryan's claims of having met 'Dingoes Ate My Baby' were, in fact, true. 

She hadn't put the two together until she called round to Giles' to find Ryan helping Xander move furniture. He looked up in the ensuing awkward silence as Buffy stood dumbfounded in Giles' doorway. 

"I should really get going. Thank you for the tea Mr. Giles, and the book." He half-raised a weighty, leatherbound tome as he walked towards her. 

"That's quite alright Ryan - thank you for your assistance. Do call by if you have any further questions," Giles responded with typical politeness. 

"Thanks," he replied. "See you at work, Alex." Ryan nodded to Xander and tried to negotiate his way around a still-stunned Buffy. "Good to see you again," he smiled as she took in the still-healing cuts and bruises to his face. She watched him go without a word and vanish up the steps. 

"Jeez, Giles. You couldn't have offered him anything a little manlier? Black coffee maybe? A beer?" Xander complained. 

"He agreed that tea is soothing," Giles defended himself. "Something I dare say the boy needed after his encounter the other night, which you, young lady, should have told me about," he directed at Buffy. 

"Alex?!" was the first thing she could manage when she finally found her voice. 

"I'm trying something new. I tried to explain it to Ry, but he gave me this weird kind of frown and said I reminded him of Seth," Xander said, as if it would explain anything. 

"Se…who?" Buffy's confusion showed no sign of abating. 

"His brother," Xander clarified. 

"What is it about this boy that has you so rattled, Buffy?" Giles asked, bemused. "And what on earth made you decide to reveal the nature of things to him?" 

"I don't know, I just thought...I thought he deserved an answer. I mean it's about the only time I felt like putting a vampire out of its misery. That boy has some serious anger issues." 

Giles cocked an eyebrow. 

"Don't give me that!" she snapped. "I refuse to be judged by your judging eyebrow." 

"I wasn't aware that my eyebrows were particularly judgmental." Giles pursed his lips in a poor attempt to contain his mirth. 

"Would you prefer 'quizzical'?" Xander offered. 

"And what's with the book?" she asked, trying to change the subject. "What are you? Like setting up your own demonology lending library now?" 

"Quizzical is a good Scrabble word..." Xander kept on in the background. 

"Not exactly no. Ryan's helping Xander with a few jobs I have around the place. He only wanted information in payment, something I find most fortunate given my current employment status," Giles explained. 

"Yeah, see, that's the part I don't get. If you're so unemployed why do you need the help around the house?" Xander asked. 

"I tend to find an excess of manual labour takes a good deal of enjoyment out of being a gentleman of leisure," Giles smiled serenely. "Besides, if you were planning on taking on a pet project, I'd have appreciated a little more warning so that I could have better prepared myself," he put to Buffy. 

"Project?! Who said anything about a project?!" she asked indignantly. 

"Just keep an eye on him. That's all I'm saying – he seems a very determined fellow," Giles cautioned. 

"Since when did he become my responsibility?!" 

"When you chose to involve him in your world, Buffy." 

~ 

Buffy hadn't done any such thing, and she had blustered about it and told everyone who would listen exactly that for a week, but Ryan started to develop an irksome habit of being in her life. Out jogging, she'd see him running as if the devil were chasing him, which in Sunnydale was usually a pretty safe bet. As soon as he'd see her though he'd stop, breathing hard, smile that stupid lop-sided smile and wave. 

She'd visit Giles, and Ryan would be there discussing some obscure element of some gigantic book or other, and Giles would be all with the handshakes, and the hands on shoulders, and the 'Remarkable!'s. 

She'd go to complain to Willow and be midway through an over-the-threshold tirade to find Ryan fixing Willow's dormroom plumbing. 

At Xander's she'd find them doing weights, or Ryan putting a new hole in a heavy bag with his stupid floppy hair and all his stupid hard muscles in his stupid sweaty vest. 

"He's an intriguing young man, and dare I say, very respectful," Giles would say. 

"Go easy on him, he's had a rough time," was Xander's response. 

But when Willow's view was, "He's so your type." Buffy couldn't let it pass. 

"What?!" she yelped. 

"Well, he is...I mean...he's not a vampire but he's all with the brooding and the not so much with the talking and he reads..." Willow explained defensively. 

"And he's very pretty," Oz contributed, as he perched on Willow's bed, fingering his guitar, "Also with the hair." 

"See?" Willow beamed. 

~ 

Things didn't start to change until Ryan's brother came to visit. 

She hadn't realised Ryan was sort of adopted. Xander and Ryan turned up at The Bronze with a scrawny kid named Seth who made Wesley look like Mr. Universe and he and Willow became fast friends. 

"A fellow lonely, outcast Jewish intellect," Seth drawled. 

"I know your pain," Willow kept a straight face as they embraced. 

"Y'see Ryan? You're even an honorary Jew and you just missed out on a beautiful moment," Seth teased him. 

"How are Sandy and Kirsten?" Ryan asked. 

"Good, very good, they both miss you - a lot. Mom baked you some cookies..." 

"Kirsten's baking now?" 

"Very much so. We even have a zen rock garden now. Captain Oats finally has an open prairie to roam. He may be without Princess Sparkle, but at least he has somewhere to work out his frustrations." 

"Ok, so...a lot of questions to be answered, but there was something in there about cookies?" Buffy said, deciding to make an effort. Ryan glanced sidelong at her, the dim light catching his bone structure and the flicker of a small smile. Stupid Oz, she thought. 

"Yeah...about those..." Seth began evasively, "it's a long bus ride from Newport, Ryan – long and lonely and my iPod battery died and...you have no idea what it's like. Ok, you have some idea what it's like but..." Seth floundered as Ryan grinned at him. 

"It's good to see you," he smiled warmly. 

"You too. So, now...what exactly was it about the sky falling and the world ending that should scare me off coming to this fair town? Something so dark and portentous it even has our Kid Chino worried?" Seth asked. Ryan's smile vanished. "Oh my god, you weren't lying! Dingoes! Wooooooooooo!" Seth cheered and moved out of his seat in a weird, boppy sort of loping run. 

"You know...for a guy with no visible hips...he sure does gyrate a lot," Willow observed. 

~ 

Buffy ran into Ryan the next morning at The Espresso Pump. He looked tired and a little pale, bags under his eyes. 

"How'd things go with Seth?" 

"About how you'd expect – first he thought I was crazy, then he thought I'd been brainwashed by a cult, replaced by an alien...." 

"He has an active imagination," Buffy observed. 

"You have no idea. In the end I think he fell so in love with the whole thing that he wants to make a comic out of it," Ryan almost laughed. 

"You're kidding right?" 

"Wish I was," he shook his head. "Here I thought I was moving somewhere nice and quiet and...normal," he sighed. 

"Sunnydale's anything but." She tried a smile. 

"Probably why the bus fare was so cheap," he grinned. They stood looking at each other awkwardly for a moment, Ryan beginning to bite on his lower lip. Part of Buffy absently wondered what that might be like. "You look..." he began, then seemed to think better of it. 

"What?" She asked, frowning and trying to keep from putting a hand to her hair. 

"Nothing – I should go...Seth...coffee," he fumbled. 

"Right," she nodded, as he hurried away. 

She could have sworn she heard him mutter something like 'Nice. How hard is that to say?!'. 

~ 

That afternoon, her mother announced that there was a young man to see her and she was surprised to find she was a little disappointed that it wasn't Ryan. 

"Seth," she greeted him awkwardly, coming out onto the porch. 

"Hi...I'm looking for Ryan..." he began just as awkwardly. 

"Why would Ryan be at my house?" Buffy asked. 

"Right...Ok, that was a lie...I'm here to talk about Ryan". 

"What about Ryan?" she asked, frowning more than she wanted to. She was convinced she was starting to get furrows. 

"Aaaah, what about Ryan? That's a very good question. What are your...intentions, exactly where Ryan's concerned?" He looked a little pallid and seemed to be sweating through his newly acquired Dingoes t-shirt. 

"My intentions?!" she asked, indignance creeping into her voice. 

"It's just he's had a really bad run – I mean, it's been a rough few years for him in Newport. Held the only girl I think he's ever really loved while she died in his arms not so long ago. Y'know, the usual teen angst stuff," Seth explained badly. 

"What happened?" she asked, a little taken aback. 

"Car wreck. Guy ran them off the road. I mean, I guess I shouldn't even really be talking about this, but I just figured you may have some idea what he's going through," he answered carefully. 

"Actually, I do. Life here hasn't exactly been a barrel of laughs," she replied, trying with all her might not to visualise that sword thrust. 

"I get that. From what I hear, laughs are somewhat thin on the ground here. It's just he left Newport in such a rush so as to avoid, y'know his fists of fury taking over again." 

"I don't think leaving Newport stopped that," she smirked. 

"Right, right...but I think punching the living dead's probably a lot healthier...or as healthy as...or, y'know, whatever," Seth rambled to a halt. "Is it hot in here?" 

"We're outside." 

"Wow, and I thought trying to explain things to Summer was bad," Seth swallowed hard. "Aaah, Ryan likes you, I think, I mean it's always hard to tell but after a little Seth/Ryan time I think it's pretty clear. I mean there was abundant smiling and talking, and I'm meaning complete sentences here." 

"Was there a point to this at all?" Buffy asked, suddenly uncomfortable. 

"Y'know, I thought there was," Seth looked at a nearby tree as if hoping it would tell him what to say. "I think it's just, you're about the first girl he's liked who doesn't need saving and y'know, you've got a lot in common – single mother, good to have around in a fight, you both have attractive, intelligent, sage-like Jewish best friends. I think it's a good thing. I'm going to try and not say anything jinxy like 'match made in heaven' or anything..." 

"Not a good idea in this town," she agreed dryly. 

"I'm still glad you're not big on waterpolo around here," he remarked. 

"Yeah, there was an...incident...with the water sports," she answered evasively. 

"As long as it didn't involve chest-shaving, I'm fine with it," Seth responded. 

"What?" 

"Nevermind. I'm gonna go. This was good – I'm very excited about this. But don't tell Ryan I came by to talk about it," he enthused as he backed off the porch, palms raised. 

"About what?" she called after him, annoyed or confused or both. 

"Exactly!" He pointed and grinned as he jogged away. 

~ 

In the end, she went along to the bus station when Seth left, he and Ryan hugging awkwardly. 

"This is from mom and dad," Seth stated, handing Ryan an envelope. "Now I know you're doing the whole proud, self-made loner thing...but honestly Ryan, next time I come, please be staying somewhere with plumbing that doesn't require emergency repairs while I'm in the shower," he beseeched. 

"Is that never speaking of it again?" Ryan asked sternly. 

"Talking of highly embarrassing situations – I fully expect that you and Xander will have rehearsed that Snoopy dance-slash-musical thing by the next time I'm back," he taunted. 

"You're so dead," Ryan grabbed at him and swiped playfully at his head. 

"Hey! Watch the Jewfro!" Seth danced away. 

"Thank Sandy and Kirsten for me," Ryan added more seriously and held up the envelope. 

"Will do. Buff, take good care of our boy," Seth called to her, scampering up the steps before Ryan could get to him. 

Ryan and Buffy walked back to her house, slowly and quietly, enjoying the afternoon sun. The light was hazy and soft. She asked him about Marissa as they sat on her front steps, eating Fruit Loops out of a box while the wind rustled the trees. He was reluctant to talk at first, but he kept looking at her, looking at her in a way that made her smile, looking at her like she was still a girl and not a weapon. 

"Somehow I think your stories all beat mine," he finally smiled in a defensive sort of way. 

"Doesn't mean they don't count," she placed a hand on his arm. 

"Come on, I mean, The Master, Spike, Angel," she twinged a little at the name, "Faith, The Mayor. Next to all of that, Luke, Oliver, Trey and Volchok don't really stack up," He shook his head and looked at his shoes. 

"Who are they?" She asked, actually wanting to know. And so Ryan told her, told her about his father, his mom, his other brother, the Cohens, Newport and Marissa. It was late afternoon by then and he seemed embarrassed to have been talking for so long. 

"Sorry. You don't need to hear all this," he stated and looked like he was about to go. 

"Don't be silly, just be glad your graduation didn't involve a giant serpent and legions of the undead," She tried to make him smile. 

"True, I just hope Taylor never finds out about that or she'll be crushed she didn't organise something," Ryan came close to a laugh. 

"You're still planning on staying around though, right?" she asked. 

"Yeah...I like it here. I mean, it's kinda like Newport, seems nice on the surface..." 

"Not so nice underneath," she finished for him. 

"Right. Still, beats Chino, and I'd probably rather face up to a vampire than a Newpsie," he said, ruffling his hair. 

"I think Giles is still trying to find a reference to them in his books," Buffy grinned and they laughed a little. 

"That was mean," Ryan pointed out. 

"Oh come on, don't ruin it for me. It's not often I find something that Giles and his big, giant, Oxford brain doesn't know," she pleaded. 

"Alright," he agreed and turned to look at her for a minute. He looked to decide against saying something...again. "Giles is a good guy, reminds me of Sandy," he said instead. 

"Really?" 

"Yeah, I mean he even sings," Ryan sounded impressed. 

"Don't encourage him!" She was only half-kidding. 

"I won't, I won't...aaaah I wonder how bad a job Seth'll do at covering for me." He looked up at the sky, thoughtful, contemplative. 

"I'm sure he'll do fine," she tried to sound encouraging but didn't hold out much hope. 

"I'm just glad he left...if anything happened to him..." Ryan trailed off. 

"I think he's too skinny for most of the vamps in this town," she said, trying to make light, and they both smiled at one another. 

"I should get going," he said and got up, dusting off his jeans. 

"Ok," she stayed sitting, looking up at him as he scrunched his eyes at the sinking sun. 

"Do you wanna...I don't know...I was wondering if maybe...God I suck at this..." he meandered unevenly. She tried not to smile but couldn't help it and they both ended up laughing. "The diner by my motel does an alright attempt at chilli cheese fries, if you, y'know, wanted to eat...later," he offered. 

"With you?" She asked, teasing him. 

"Yes...yes...that part's important," Ryan made a cute, awkward face and looked down quickly. 

"I'd love to but I can't..." she began. 

"That's ok, um, that's, that's fine...I'm just gonna..." 

"No, I can't because we're all meeting at Giles', we've gotta hit the books on something," she explained. 

"Oh ok," he sounded relieved. 

"Why don't you come?" she asked suddenly, deciding something. 

"Really?" He sounded a little surprised. 

"Yeah, come by around 8," she got up and moved down the steps. 

"Do I need to bring anything?" he asked. 

"Coffee and jelly donuts'd make a good impression," she suggested. 

"Jelly donuts?" 

"Wouldn't be a Scooby meeting without them," she explained. 

"Scooby?" He frowned. 

"Aaaah...yeah..." 

"You guys have a Mystery Machine?" he asked, grinning. 

"No, well, yeah – Giles' Citroen," she shrugged. 

"You sure this won't be weird?" 

"Always room for one more," she spoke reassuringly. 

"Jinkies," he deadpanned and they both laughed. 

"I'll see you tonight then." 

"You look nice...by the way," he added suddenly. 

"Thanks," she smiled as he turned and walked away up the street.


End file.
